Tony Khan Would "Love" To Have Ricky Starks "Involved" And "Back" In AEW

Despite Ricky Starks only wrestling five AEW matches in 2024, Tony Khan is a big fan of Absolute.

by Andrew Pollard
Ricky Starks
AEW

Having only wrestled five times for AEW this year, and having not been seen on AEW programming at all since the end of March, Tony Khan has said how he'd "love" to have Ricky Starks back in the AEW fold.

The AEW President recently spoke to SHAK Wrestling for CBS Sports, where Khan was asked whether any creative plans were in the works for Absolute.

Noting how he likes Starks a lot, Tony added:

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"I think Ricky Starks is tremendous. I’d love to get him involved and back in AEW anytime. He’s been a huge part of what we’ve done here for about four out of the five years."

Khan would also praise the team of Starks and Big Bill, and detailed the Stroke Daddy's role in Sting's AEW run, with Ricky a part of the Stinger's first AEW match and the last televised match of the Icon's career, in addition to being the person Sting pinned to win the last gold of that storied career.

Now, if only Tony Khan knew someone who had some say in creative or in booking talent...

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As for Ricky Starks' absence, that topic was discussed with the man himself when we caught up with Ricky last month. Despite previous speculation that Starks was injured following a Collision match against Top Flight - the last time Ricky was on AEW TV - the former FTW Champion shot down such talk, noting how he's healthy and has "no clue" why he's not being used on AEW programming.

Go back to last summer and it was night and day for Ricky Starks, with him a major player during the early days of Collision. There, Starks was a clear focal point of AEW's Saturday show, winning the Owen Hart Cup, feuding with CM Punk over the Real World Title, disrespecting legends in the shape of Jushin Liger and Ricky Steamboat, and having two excellent matches against Bryan Danielson once the American Dragon was switched into plans following Punk's exit from the company.

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While his pairing with Big Bill was a fun one that saw the pair win the AEW Tag Team Titles, many were left clamouring for Starks to continue to be pushed as a significant singles act. Given how Ricky told WhatCulture outright that the team with Big was now done - the big fella obviously a part of Chris Jericho's Learning Tree these days - here's hoping that Ricky Starks is back on TV as a solo act sooner rather than later.

For those who may have missed that recent interview with Ricky, be sure to check it out below.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.